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Sunday, June 19, 2011

Residents and locals will all have had a letter from Thames Water inviting us to view new proposals relating to the construction work for the Thames Tunnel that involves Greenwich Pumping Station in Norman Road and a patch of green in Deptford Church Street.

They are staging Drop-In Sessions at the newly named Creekside Discovery Centre (newly named since Thames Water began funding the Creekside Education Trust's work) next weekend at 14 Creekside.

Saturday 24 June, 10am-7pm, and Sunday 28th June, 12noon-5pm.

On their website, Thames Tunnel Consultation, Thames Water state: "We want to give local people an opportunity to raise with us any concerns they might have about the new alternatives under consideration. Members of our project team will be available to answer questions and take note of any issues raised.

"At this stage we have not made any decisions. Our second phase of consultation (due to start in September 2011) will provide an opportunity for everybody to comment on our revised proposals."

If you're confused about how this will affect Crossfields please try to attend the consultation. Meanwhile the Deptford Dame has attempted to explain the new proposals and their impact more clearly than we can.

3 comments:

This is pretty much of a repeat of my note on The Deptford Dame... But it seemed that the consultation was an exercise in just saying - "Well it seems since the folks at the Kings Stairs have stymied us in Rotherhithe - we have no option but to use your small patch of green space and no one will notice anyway really ... "

But then I bumped into (another) anorak at the consultation last Friday. She was from Bermondsey and seems to have been following consultations all along the Thames (Water) Tunnel. Maybe we shouldn't just sit back and take it..

This tunnel is considered by many to be a sledge-hammer to crack a nut. Hammersmith and Fulham has mounted a big battle against the big dig. see:

www.lbhf.gov.uk/supersewer

To quote some of the more salient points:

"In addition to the specific concerns about the two sites in the borough many local people are starting to question whether the benefits of the super sewer are in proportion to the large costs. Issues include:• The public health benefits will be relatively minimal. There is no risk to drinking water from sewage overflow into the Thames• The tunnel will do little to increase the capacity of the local sewerage network where, during storm conditions, basements suffer from sewer flooding• The environmental benefits will also be small. The Thames is ‘one of the cleanest metropolitan rivers in the world’, according to the GLA, and recently won the international Theiss River Prize for cleanliness• The limited benefits are not proportionate to the large and escalating costs, especially during an age of austerity• There are sensible and more cost effective alternatives that can make the Thames even cleaner with less disruption to Londoners and without the huge environmental, social and economic costs• A shorter smarter tunnel, like the Babtie option combined with other measures, could be as effective at a fraction of the cost."

Gosh, Nightmer, that's very interesting news...who'da thunk we could actually say no to the whole bloody shebang? However, slight filter job to be done considering the colour of Hammersmith & Fulham's majority, but certainly some impressive points. Will have to get the Deptford Dame to analyse the 'Babtie option'...